If you want to participate in player versus player combat with any regularity, you’ll want to have some online buddies, too. Lineage II’s high level content is based around PvP and the PvP system takes on the ambitious goal of both allowing uninvited combat to happen between players at any time, and discouraging random Pking by offering harsh penalties to those who kill neutral players. Sounds like a good thing for soloers who don’t want to be RPK’d while hunting, right? Unfortunately, it actually supports griefing of solo players in other ways.

The system breaks down like this: you are out hunting and another player takes the last shot on a quest monster you were fighting, stealing a quest item that should have gone to you. Despite repeated pleas and/or warnings, the player continues to do this until you take a swing at him. Now, because you took a hostile action toward another player, your name turns purple, letting everyone know that you’ve recently been hostile and indicating that you can be killed with no penalty. Now, if the “kill stealer” you attacked hits back he will turn purple as well and should the fight continue with both players attacking, the loser will face the risks of dying, which include losing around 10% of his exp and the slight chance that he will drop an item. The winner will receive no penalty for participating in a duel, and may be rewarded if the loser does drop an item.